The assignee of the present invention manufactures computing data centers. Historically, hardware and software solutions have been the cost drivers for information technology operations, but over time, energy costs and the data center infrastructure have become a dominant cost factor as a result of power density increases. The cost of a typical data center is in the range of $10,000 to $20,000 per kilowatt. Thus, the cost of the supporting infrastructure for one Superdome™ server manufactured by the assignee of the present invention is on the order of $200,000, and the current cost of electricity over a three year period is on the order of $50,000. Assuming $1.5 million cost for a single server Superdome™ data center solution manufactured by the assignee of the present invention, these costs amount to 17% of the acquisition cost. These costs are expected to be 35% in the 2009 timeframe assuming no energy cost increases.
For low end solutions, the energy cost percentage is even worse. For a solution using DL 360 servers manufactured by the assignee of the present invention, the 3 year energy cost alone is more than the hardware cost. For a $4000 DL 360 server, the infrastructure cost is $10,000 and the energy cost is $2,500 or about 300% of the acquisition cost.
Another problem is that as the cost for data center capacity goes up, the cost of increasing capacity for the incremental application or business solution is a huge step function at a cost in excess of $100 million as a result of building a new data center. It would be desirable to have a more scalable solution that allows the building infrastructure to scale with the growth in applications.
Users also want plug and play solutions. Users want solutions to their problems and not additional problems in managing technology shifts, not only computation but also with the infrastructure such as power and cooling. It would be desirable to have a solution that allows users to more easily manage the technology.